Nicaragua boosts Russia ties with new cancer treatment centre

Nicaragua announced Tuesday it plans to build a radiation medicine center focusing on cancer treatments with Russian support, deepening ties between the increasingly authoritarian Central American country and Moscow.

A Nicaraguan health ministry delegation signed the deal with representatives of Russia's state-owned company Rosatom in the Russian city of Sochi, Vice President Rasario Murillo told government-aligned TV station Canal 4.

The facility, called the Nuclear Medicine Center, will focus on diagnosis and treatment of cancer and training health professionals, said Murillo, who is the wife of President Daniel Ortega.

Murillo said the project represented a further strengthening of scientific cooperation between Nicaragua and Russia.

Russia is an important ally of Nicaragua, and has supplied it with buses and taxis for public transport, as well as the Sputnik vaccine during the Covid pandemic.

Nicaragua's government has been accused of increasing authoritarianism, with the United States sanctioning its Attorney General Wendy Morales Urbina this month for allegedly targeting political opponents.

Ortega and Murillo are both already subject to US sanctions.

A one-time Marxist firebrand who battled the United States during the Cold War, Ortega returned to power in 2007 and has gradually tightened his grip on state institutions.